Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am looking to meet some people who live in my area interested in Aquaponics, as it seems most of the information i have found about aquaponics so far comes from places where freezing is not an issue. :-)

Welcome aquamaniac, you're not the only one in that boat!

Greetings aquamaniac, I am moved from Put-in-Bay, Ohio to SW Utah about 7 yrs ago. Just go into AP last year. I also know COLD here in Utah. Right now I am racking my brain trying to figure out an ecomical and efficient way to heat a green house for the winter. I have considered several ways, but have decided to keep looking. If I can't figure it out, I will be restarting my system every spring. I really don't want to do that. Trying to find a very small pellet burner.since they are 0 clearance, they should be ok in a hoop house with normal precautions taken into consideration. They use a tripple insulated pipes and the outside of them do not get hot except the top of the burn area. Still working on it though.

I have seen an awesome design employed at a greenhouse in Cleveland. I emailed the guy there asking about design plans online for what he built...

In the mean time, you need a lot of clay, hay, sand, and a 55 gallon metal drum to make this, so you might consider gathering those materials as you can in the mean time... also some metal dryer ducting for the exhaust pipe is needed for sure that will go almost the length of your greenhouse... i am pondering a solar/wind powered utopia, so may or may not utilize this in my design here... might add it just as a backup/failsafe measure in the event my electricity goes out anyhow, but just not sure i will do it in the beginning.

I think you're talking about Rocket Mass Heaters. There is actually a book about creating these just do a search for images and you'll get this and plenty of diagrams.

WebforDeb has one in his thread on building his geodesic dome greenhouse - see the bottom of the page.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8898&p=315944&hilit=rocket+heater#p315944

I see utahgal posted about looking into these awhile ago. Pellet stoves can be a bit more automatic and that may be the issue.

howdy from another useless nut (the buckeye)
i've got about 1000 gallons in my basement, 140 yellow perch 8 or so bluegill, 10 blue tilapia, marmokrebs (found the babies right before i went out of town last week) rosy red minnows, papershell crayfish, glass shrimp, scuds...
keeps me outta trouble.. i'll be updating pics, i might have to pull the tomatoes out

Very nice to meet you! I am actually in Willoughby. what are those marmokrebs you are talking about? I have never heard of them. I just moved back here from Florida in December, so not entirely familiar with all local indigenous fish species if that is what that is.

i'm in fairport, used to work in willoughby right off airport parkway... i've heard that there is an aquaculture facilty off lost nation road.. i need to check that out!
marmokrebs are a self cloning crayfish, i think they were discovered by a german..

oh, ok. I'm just doing perch, or that is my plan. I have a design of a system using IBC totes and vertical growing for some select plants, it is all prepped but waiting for a living space with a back yard to set it up.

Well, I am new to the whole idea of aquaponics in the ibc totes here in NW Ohio, near Toledo. Someone on here said they got YP near Toledo, can I get that info, please? Just for my resource library at the moment.

I have some ideas about WHERE I can locate this, but with our winter freezes, I'd like input from you more experienced types.

I am getting ready to set up 6-8 racks of FODDER GREENS in the basement, running about 100 trays of barley seed for feeding the livestock. Some of the folks doing this are talking combining with an aquaponics system.

So here I am to learn. Send me to any useful threads on the forum, too?

Big thanks!

Are you going to be able to control the humidity in your basement vanmeter... fodder systems often fail as a result of humidity problems...

http://www.finfarm.com/
is just west of toledo
http://www.shelbyfishfarm.com/ is south of toledo in Anna ohio
i'm just growing greens and spices at the moment (in my basement), as rupe mentioned, humidity might be a problem for fodder crops, but i haven't done it so can't say for sure..
i'm up to about 200 fish, i added 50 nile tilapia this year
i've harvested 13 yellow perch, very tasty!

Hi I'm in Findlay and just started an aquaponic systems for the first time. I really enjoyed building my system, even with all the ups and downs....LOL, I mean mistakes I made.

We have two grow beds with a 100 gallon "pond". We just started it about a month ago, so it doesn't have any plants in it right now. I do have 6 beautiful koi and fancy goldfish for starters, along with about 50 feeder goldfish. Everyone is doing great, the nitrites, ph, and nitrates are keeping pace with what I've learned.

We started some seedlings, but not sure when to add them to the system. Any ideas?

I will try to add some pics of our system later and seek any advice folks have.

Gonna start small with one 55 gal fish tank, two NFT channels and two 10 gallon media beds for filtration. Will locate in my enclosed but unheated breezeway. Have one window for some daylight, but am probably gonna add a full spectrum LED 90w light for good measure.

Thinking bout trout but see some other folks are doing that great fish we all love up here yellow perch. i do want to eat the fish so looking for fastest growth and reproduction. Here's my design:



Kevin